We’ve all had those days where we just don’t feel like connecting with anyone. Here’s some trivia about loneliness to keep you company at such times, and caution you against its spiraling effects.

The Social Surrogacy Hypothesis

Television can act as a surrogate for people who are longing to form meaningful social relationships. Researchers found that people who were lonely craved social interaction that could be replaced with a “parasocial” relationship. That’s the relationship that develops between us and TV characters when we become so invested in their lives that our brains view them as close friend.

Electric shock is preferable to loneliness

Psychologists from Harvard University and University of Virginia tested people between the ages of 18 and 77 and asked them to sit in a room. They were given a button that would administer an electric shock. A whopping 67% of men and 25% of women were so overcome by the lack of sensory input that they found shocking themselves preferable to the lonely sensation of being inside their own heads.

Loneliness is contagious

Researchers from the University of Chicago found that like the spread of a nasty germ, it all starts with a negative encounter with a lonely person. Researchers looked at how lonely people felt on particular days and their social interactions for those days. They found that loneliness is contagious to the third degree. People who are chronically lonely have been found to transmit that to other acquaintances.

Loneliness is lethal

Research proves that loneliness killed the woolly mammoth. After two huge population declines, the last of the woolly mammoths slowly got more inbred and made it’s final, lonely decline.

Another animal that suffers absolute agony from loneliness is the ant. Recent research from the University of Tokyo found that separating a single ant from its colony leaves it with a lifespan that’s reduced by 91% because alone it is incapable of digesting its food.

Still really, really want to be alone?

Head for Point Nemo — if you can get there—which is possibly the loneliest place on Earth. Named for the Jules Verne character, it is located in the middle of the South Pacific and was only discovered in 1992. The point is 2,300 km away from any nearby island and there’s nothing to be found there, just endless ocean.

We’ve all had those days where we just don’t feel like connecting with anyone. Here’s some trivia about loneliness to keep you company at such times, and caution you against its spiraling effects.

The Social Surrogacy Hypothesis

Television can act as a surrogate for people who are longing to form meaningful social relationships. Researchers found that people who were lonely craved social interaction that could be replaced with a “parasocial” relationship. That’s the relationship that develops between us and TV characters when we become so invested in their lives that our brains view them as close friend.

Electric shock is preferable to loneliness

Psychologists from Harvard University and University of Virginia tested people between the ages of 18 and 77 and asked them to sit in a room. They were given a button that would administer an electric shock. A whopping 67% of men and 25% of women were so overcome by the lack of sensory input that they found shocking themselves preferable to the lonely sensation of being inside their own heads.

Loneliness is contagious

Researchers from the University of Chicago found that like the spread of a nasty germ, it all starts with a negative encounter with a lonely person. Researchers looked at how lonely people felt on particular days and their social interactions for those days. They found that loneliness is contagious to the third degree. People who are chronically lonely have been found to transmit that to other acquaintances.

Loneliness is lethal

Research proves that loneliness killed the woolly mammoth. After two huge population declines, the last of the woolly mammoths slowly got more inbred and made it’s final, lonely decline.

Another animal that suffers absolute agony from loneliness is the ant. Recent research from the University of Tokyo found that separating a single ant from its colony leaves it with a lifespan that’s reduced by 91% because alone it is incapable of digesting its food.

Still really, really want to be alone?

Head for Point Nemo — if you can get there—which is possibly the loneliest place on Earth. Named for the Jules Verne character, it is located in the middle of the South Pacific and was only discovered in 1992. The point is 2,300 km away from any nearby island and there’s nothing to be found there, just endless ocean.